Wardcraft Conveyor was originally founded by Dr. M.J. McLaughlin and Russell E. Ward in 1897 under the name “McLaughlin, Ward & Co.” The company specialized in developing grain elevators that milled corn and wheat until 1919, when they developed “Eleceysort Color Sorting” for bean cleaning, polishing, sorting, counting, as well as cleaning bean processing equipment.

In 1950, McLaughlin, Ward & Co. sold the grain elevator developing business, expanded, and began to manufacture and sell processing equipment to grain elevators instead. While still selling the processing equipment, the company started manufacturing custom conveyors for local customers, and within the next decade, they founded the Wardcraft Conveyor Products Division for industrial use.

1967 marked the year when Wardcraft Conveyor’s first signature products was developed—the Slug-Vayor®. Other signature products—the Parts-Vayor®, Chip-Vayor® and Magna-Vayor®—were designed and produced soon after, helping Wardcraft Conveyor quickly become a leader of conveyor systems throughout the U.S. and Canada. In 1972, the company acquired Ralph C. Gardner & Co. to gain the ability to manufacture industrial sensing devices known as Fail-Safe, Bin-Dex and StalGard, which allowed Wardcraft to continue to facilitate its quick growth.

Throughout the 1980s, Wardcraft continued to flourish, introducing Quick Die Change products and offering a 2 ½” pitch steel hinge belt. A state-of-the-art facility was built on 10 acres of land in Spring Arbor, Michigan in 1990, where Wardcraft Conveyor still resides today. The company remained family-owned until 1996, when the Ward family sold controlling interest of Wardcraft and QDC Division to John Richard, who has been with the company since 1970.